Taiwan: Broadcasters Join New Youtube Taiwan Platform

The internationally-popular website YouTube yesterday launched a local site - YouTube Taiwan - with a Chinese-language interface, in a bid to encourage more Taiwan users to share their video clips, not only with Chinese-language web surfers, but also with others around the globe.

YouTube, founded in 2005, is a video-sharing website that allows users to upload, view and share video clips. Steven Chen , the co-founder of YouTube, said he hoped the local community would use YouTube as a platform to circulate their video creations and share them with the world.

"The nature of video is such that it exceeds the boundaries of text and many people can understand it. If someone in Taiwan uploads a video on a certain topic, anyone anywhere in the world who's interested in that topic can watch it," said Chen.

"Now, an estimated seven hours of video is uploaded every minute on YouTube, and the millions of users who access the site every day range in age from age 18 to 55," Chen said.

Chen noted that YouTube has become not just a platform for entertainment, but also a site on which many innovative practices have been employed, far exceeding initial expectations. "We see YouTube also being used by artists, musicians and film makers as a platform to promote their works, and it has gone beyond the expectations we had when we uploaded the first video clip on the site a few years ago," Chen said.

Sakina Arsiwala, the international manager of YouTube, said Taiwan already has many surfers who favour YouTube, and the launch of the local version is not just meant to translate the website's interface into Chinese.

"Our local web page would provide local content supplied by local users, and the homepage is different to the one in the United States. The search engine on Taiwan YouTube will also show local content," said Arsiwala.

At yesterday press conference, YouTube Taiwan also announced its partnership with local companies and the media, saying that it hopes the joint effort would promote the popularity of YouTube Taiwan. Local enterprises that are in partnership with YouTube include China Television Company, Common Wealth Magazine Group, Lion Travel Service Co. and Taiwan Broadcasting System.

Wang Wen-chieh, a representative of Lion Travel Service, said video clips of many tourist attractions could be shown on YouTube and this would help the travel agency business.

Hu Yuan-hui , the general manger of Public Television Service [PTS], also said he had high expectations of YouTube Taiwan in promoting PTS's popularity. "The founding spirit of PTS is to entertain, educate and connect people, and these aims are very close to the goals of YouTube. We expect YouTube to help us gain a wider audience and support," said Hu.